Learning swing gui by hand or gui builder?

Hello,
Which is a better way of start learning writing swing gui based apps? by hand or using gui builder?
Do you know any useful web links? or do you consider buying books?
Thanks.

>>
Hmm, the differences:
1) The GUI builder app resizes correctly.-->>falseJust stating it is false doesn't make it so. I never have any issues with my GUI builder apps resizing correctly. I do have issues making my coded by hand apps resize correctly. Ignorance on my part? Possibly
I used to use a GUI builder just for complicated layouts and use GridBagLayout for simple dialogs inside an app, but I find myself just using a GUI builder now. Just much quicker and much less hassle.
As far as maintaining the code if you use the GUI builder for maintanence where is the issue?
i have never seen a GUI builer that uses
layoutmangers please point me to the one that you are
using i would love to take a look
secondly have you seen tried the little exersise you
will be suprised at how complex the code is compared
to the one done by hand!!!!IntelliJ's GUI builder appears to use a custom GridLayout manager, the code it generates appears pretty straightforward to me, doesn't seem overly complicated:
private void $$$setupUI$$$() {
        mainPanel = new JPanel();
        mainPanel.setLayout(new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridLayoutManager(1, 1, new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0), -1, -1));
        final JSplitPane splitPane1 = new JSplitPane();
        splitPane1.setContinuousLayout(true);
        splitPane1.setDividerLocation(142);
        mainPanel.add(splitPane1, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(0, 0, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_CENTER, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_BOTH, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_GROW, null, new Dimension(200, 200), null));
        fileListing = new JTree();
        splitPane1.setLeftComponent(fileListing);
        tabPane = new JTabbedPane();
        splitPane1.setRightComponent(tabPane);
        renameTab = new JPanel();
        renameTab.setLayout(new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridLayoutManager(2, 7, new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0), -1, -1));
        tabPane.addTab("Untitled", renameTab);
        final JLabel label1 = new JLabel();
        label1.setHorizontalAlignment(4);
        label1.setText("Current Filename");
        renameTab.add(label1, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 0, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_WEST, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_NONE, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, null, null));
        imageScrollPane = new JScrollPane();
        imageScrollPane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(30);
        imageScrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(20);
        renameTab.add(imageScrollPane, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(0, 0, 1, 7, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_CENTER, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_BOTH, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_WANT_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_WANT_GROW, null, null, null));
        currentFilenameField = new JTextField();
        renameTab.add(currentFilenameField, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 1, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_WEST, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_HORIZONTAL, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_WANT_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, new Dimension(150, -1), null));
        final JLabel label2 = new JLabel();
        label2.setText("New Filename");
        renameTab.add(label2, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 2, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_WEST, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_NONE, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, null, null));
        newFilenameField = new JTextField();
        renameTab.add(newFilenameField, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 3, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_WEST, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_HORIZONTAL, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_WANT_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, new Dimension(150, -1), null));
        renameButton = new JButton();
        renameButton.setText("Rename");
        renameTab.add(renameButton, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 4, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_CENTER, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_HORIZONTAL, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, null, null));
        previousButton = new JButton();
        previousButton.setText("");
        renameTab.add(previousButton, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 5, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_CENTER, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_HORIZONTAL, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, null, null));
        nextImageButton = new JButton();
        nextImageButton.setText("");
        renameTab.add(nextImageButton, new com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints(1, 6, 1, 1, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.ANCHOR_CENTER, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.FILL_HORIZONTAL, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_SHRINK | com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_CAN_GROW, com.intellij.uiDesigner.core.GridConstraints.SIZEPOLICY_FIXED, null, null, null));
        htmlGeneratorTab = new JPanel();
        tabPane.addTab("Untitled", htmlGeneratorTab);
    }

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Hello everybody!
I have to develop a GUI in Java and I am totally rookie on this (Java & GUI development). What I would like to know is whether there is a kind of GUI Builder for Java with free license. I mean, a program which makes me easier to choose where to put the different menus and buttoms of the GUI.
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Encephalopathic wrote:
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So now I have to start over from scratch and have to hand-code it too. I would have been better off just starting by hand-coding in the first place. That way I wouldn't have lost so much time.
Besides, If you have to build a parser that builds the GUI from the contents of an XML file, I don't think any GUI builder would be of any use to you. Surely you'd have to study swing to a degree where you can hand-code a GUI with ease if you want to have any chance of building a program that can build a GUI on your behalf based on arbitrary XML content.
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GUI builder for Eclipse

Hello
Does the IDE Eclipse provide a drag-and-drop GUI builder, can it create that MS visual studio feel, am new to java and just after some quick answers...any help will be much appreciated..
cheers Lee

Here are your quick answers:
No Eclipse does not come with one, Eclpise barely comes with anything, you have to find a plugin for it.
Yes there are several plugins for GUI drag and drop. I tried them and most outright suck, none even compare to Netbeans.
Here are the quick answers you don't want to here but need to take to heart:
If you choose to use the netbeans GUI builder as someone who is new to java, you will only be doing yourself a huge disservice. I am not saying this because I am anti netbeans, I used eclipse exclusively until about a year ago, now i prefer netbeans but still use eclipse on occasion. The reason i prefer netbeans is because of it's GUI builder. I love it, and I use it alot.
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If you use the GUI builder before you know swing you will never be able to add to its palette or functionality, never be able to modify the autogenerated code, and learn more wrong swing practices than right ones. Yes it sucks to have to do something by hand when you know there is a tool that can do it. But you will be extremely thankful you invested the time learning swing first when you do start using the GUI builder.
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JSG

Developing a JAVA GUI builder

Hi,
I've been a middle tier and back end developer mostly, and i've not much development on swing. By that i mean i did not get much into swing programming other than using netbeans gui designer or jdeveloper for front end user interfaces. I have a general knowledge about swing though, how to create a custom component and stuff like that.
However, i have a personal project for which i'd really like to build a gui designer for myself. I know that i can find my through if i dig hard enough, but that means a lot of time. Yes, i can use one the existing gui builders, but this time i want to add a little bit of experience to my swing programming skills, so that i can develop tools for my own development more easily.
Looking around, i see a lot of gui builders, some being open source, but none of them gives me the impressing of being a good example for me. Some of them (like netbeans gui building code) seems to large to examine, and not many simple examples for this seem to exist.
In general, there appears to be a lack of guidance for this kind of development. Swing development resources are plenty, but what about a little more custimized goals like mine ?
I want to create a simple designer with swing, but certainly this kind of task has it's tricks ? How should i represent components (txtbox, listbox, etc) on the designer ? Do i use swing components directly in the designer ? Or do i create representations of them ? What are the tips and tricks for this kind of task ?
So, what kind of resources can i use for making this task easier for me ? Which books would be helpful ? Or any online resources for getting up to speed for creating a simple gui designer in java?
I hope i could express myself clear enoug, and It'd be really appreciated if anyone could contribute about my next step
Best regards

If you actually do go about creating a visual GUi builder, 90% of your code will revolve around using the java.beans package. So you should start learning that first.
Here is an example of how to build a visual GUI builder using the java.beans package:
https://bean-builder.dev.java.net/guide/tutorial.html
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/beans/package-summary.html

What is the best FREE GUI Builder in Eclipse plugin??

hello experts!!!
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kagaw3000 wrote:
i am not an english speaker and i am not an American citizen.And many others here are not primary or secondary English speakers either. How can you expect them to understand you if you use strange abbreviations? Programming is an exercise in precision. If you have a question here, you would do well to communicate it precisely.
At the site [How to Ask Smart Questions|http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#writewell] :
h1. Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language
We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.
So expressing your question clearly and well is important. If you can't be bothered to do that, we can't be bothered to pay attention. Spend the extra effort to polish your language. It doesn't have to be stiff or formal � in fact, hacker culture values informal, slangy and humorous language used with precision. But it has to be precise; there has to be some indication that you're thinking and paying attention.
Spell, punctuate, and capitalize correctly. Don't confuse �its� with �it's�, �loose� with �lose�, or �discrete� with �discreet�. Don't TYPE IN ALL CAPS; this is read as shouting and considered rude. (All-smalls is only slightly less annoying, as it's difficult to read. Alan Cox can get away with it, but you can't.)
More generally, if you write like a semi-literate boob you will very likely be ignored. So don't use instant-messaging shortcuts. Spelling "you" as "u" makes you look like a semi-literate boob to save two entire keystrokes. Worse: writing like a l33t script kiddie hax0r is the absolute kiss of death and guarantees you will receive nothing but stony silence (or, at best, a heaping helping of scorn and sarcasm) in return.
If you are asking questions in a forum that does not use your native language, you will get a limited amount of slack for spelling and grammar errors � but no extra slack at all for laziness (and yes, we can usually spot that difference). Also, unless you know what your respondent's languages are, write in English. Busy hackers tend to simply flush questions in languages they don't understand, and English is the working language of the Internet. By writing in English you minimize your chances that your question will be discarded unread.
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Windows 2000
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class Test{
     public Test(){
          try {
Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process proc = rt.exec("javadoc");
InputStream stderr = proc.getErrorStream();
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(stderr);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
String line = null;
System.out.println("<ERROR>");
while ( (line = br.readLine()) != null)
System.out.println(line);
System.out.println("</ERROR>");
int exitVal = proc.waitFor();
System.out.println("Process exitValue: " + exitVal);
} catch (Throwable t)
t.printStackTrace();

Recommended Tool for devloping Swing GUI's?

Hello everyone.
I was wondering what a good tool kit was for building swing gui's?
I heard NetBean was one, any others you recommend?
Currently I use Rational Software Architect to do all my java coding but I don't see any options in this IDE for creating drag and drop GUI development.
Thanks!

You have 2 very different answers to consider. Before making your final decision, I'd ask yourself, which of the two responders is a Swing expert and which isn't. That should put a whole lot of added weight to one of the recs. Just my two scheckel's worth.

JavaFx GUI builder

older releases of netbens had a Javafx composer which allows us to develop applications easily but when i download netbeans 7.1 i can't find ant gui builder!! i search lot in google but didnt found any quire i would be a great help if anyone can give a little hand
thanx
Imal hasaranga perera

Hi smith,
I have accepted the license agreement, and trying to download Windows 32-Bit(msi). It downloads 15.9 MB of 16 MB than gives a error message saying "Cannot Copy Javafx_scenebuilder-1_0-beta-b41_windows-i586-04_jun-2012[1]: Access is denied", but it saves the installer.
When I tried to run the scene builder installer it gives a Windows Installer error message saying "This installer package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid windows installer package"
I am not getting whats going wrong. Can you please help me. Please mail it to [email protected] if possible.
Thanks a lot.

JAVA GUI Builder

Hi,
Does anyone know any "good" Java GUI Builder?
Thank all.
Dang Nguyen Duc

There is a combination of tools you may find useful:
Eclipse as an IDE - free and downloadable from eclipse.org
Plugin for Eclipse called swt-designer. Free version for non-commercial use; very minimal price (~$200) for commercial use (one seat).
Caveat: This is built around using SWT, not AWT/Swing.
JBuilder also has GUI building tools.

Learning swing gui by hand or gui builder?

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